SO HOW WILL THE SPARTANS FARE IN THE BOWL?

We forecast this match up more than a month ago and son of a gun if it didn't turn out that way-- MSU vs. Georgia in Orlando on New Year's Day. It's a 1pm kick off. MSU has a 1-1 record in this stadium since winning the 1999 Citrus Bowl, 37-34 over Florida and losing the Champ's Sports Bowl 24-21 last December to Boston College. Georgia is a touchdown favorite and I guess that's about right. Georgia has good skilled position players and MSU's defense will get challenged. Georgia quarterback Matt Stafford might be the first pick in the NFL draft next April. And he has a terrific running back in Knowshown Moreno, likely to be a prominent NFL pick.

Georgia was the pre season number one team and began the year 4-0 and 7-1 after a 41-30 loss at home from Alabama. The Bulldogs lolst 49-10 to Florida in Jacksonville and the final game of the regular season at home to Georgia Tech, 45-42. Michigan State, I think, will have to score at least 30 points to have a chance to win the game. The Spartans need to get Javon Ringer free and make some plays through the air and of course not commit penalties and turnovers and all that sounds the same, but it's all true again in this game.

Georgia has some wins that were shaky-- their best was probably 52-38 at LSU and 27-10 early at Arizona State. Who knows how these teams play when they've both had more than a month off but underdogs tend to have a better chance than anticipated.

As it is, the Big Ten is an underdog in six of its seven games-- we forecast that last week. Iowa is a two point favorite over downtrodden South Carolina in the Outback Bowl in Tampa. I like Iowa by more than that. The Big Ten gets little respect by oddsmakers and until the league can begin to win more games like these match ups the betting lines will stay the same. The Big Ten has won four straight Capital One Bowls-- does that mean the trend is due to continue or due for the Big Ten to lose and in this case of course that means Michigan State.

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